Safe Harbor Lab Rescue in Wellington, CO.

The dog loving folks of northern Colorado are in for a fun day on June 18th when Wellington holds their annual fundraiser Dog Show. Visit Safe Harbor Lab Rescue booth with photos of adoptable Labs, and Safe Harbor merchandise at this free, fun filled community event! Everyone who has a pet is welcome to just mingle and visit rescue and vendor booths or enter a one of the contests open to kids and adults alike.

One of my best bead buyers will be a vendor there: Brenda Leap is a long time supporter of Safe Harbor Lab Rescue, ever since she got her wonderful dog from them. She has turned my glass bone beads into fantastic dog bone themed earrings and beaded suncatchers, etc. and will be donating all of the proceeds of her sales to the rescue group. Good Luck, Brenda!

Filler Video Today

Much like my kids' teachers, i am offering videos. Seems like they quite teaching sometime last week, but school isn't officially over until some time Thursday, so they show movies in every class. I've been thrown off my beadmaking routine by having house guests all last week, and have nothing new to show, so i'm going to try to keep you entertained with a video, too.

Here is a short video (click on the picture to go right to it) that my husband took. A tick crawled off our dog. It was full of blood so my husband took it to his school to show his Entomology (insects) students. While it sat it a vial in his office, the tick errupted into hundreds of tiny baby ticks. Thinking this was something that other biology people might find interesting, he recorded the mass of young ticks. It is on YouTube, and it has lots of views, and lots of strange comments (which you should definitely read--it seems that seriously disturbed individuals have been attracted to this video.)

Ned Houk Burn Pt. II

These are new photos from Ned Houk Park burn area, just north of Clovis, NM. Not much has changed since my blog entry of 23 April, but that is hardly surprising since it still hasn't rained. I recall a late April hike in the same area a couple of years ago, when we were just stunned by the waving fields of purple and pink grasses and different wild flowers. This year? not so much...

These elms haven't sprouted leaves yet, but elsewhere elms are pretty leafed out already, so these trees may be done for. This particular piece of land was used as a motorcross track a few decades ago, and old tires had been used to mark the course. Most of the rubber burned away, but their steel belts remain. A big piece of pvc pipe got a giraffe's spot pattern. A few of the southwest incredibly drought-resistant plants are starting to come back, defying logic. It seems far-fetched that anything could live and grow out of bare sand and zero water, but a few representatives of three hardy plants dot the otherwise barren wasteland.

Dirty Pink Tutu

>snort!<

How's that for a descriptive name for these beads...?

Available in my etsy shop The Bead You Need.

It's Spring in the Neighbourhood

It seems like it has been spring already for a couple of months, but the weather was a little cooler for a couple of days and the air was fresh and it felt more like spring.

Here's my little nanny charge, "Pip", who is going to turn two shortly. He just learned how to climb up the steps of the playground structure and come down, AND get off, all by himself. He goes around and around and wears himself out and goes down for that nap real easy now. :-)

He enjoys trucks and tractors a great deal, and when i drove our little old beater of a Nissan pick-up over there the other day, he was thrilled to climb around in the back and inside the cab. He's a man.

I imported these poppies from my mom's garden in Canada, and they are getting more and more brilliant Barbie pink every year. I swear, this is true color in this photo! It's crazy flourescent!

Search Dog Foundation Earrings

Head on over to etsy shop The Wizard of Roz and check out these great earring! Made using my glass bone beads, 100% of the procedes from these earrings is going to the National Search Dog Foundation. It's selfless people like Roz that make good things happen. Read below to learn more about the Foundation and what they do:

Our Mission: Strengthening Disaster Response in America

• Founded in 1996, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Ojai, California.
• Our mission is to strengthen disaster response in America by recruiting rescued dogs and partnering them with firefighters and other first responders to find people buried alive in the wreckage of disasters.
• We offer the professionally trained canines and an ongoing training program at no cost to fire departments.
• And we ensure lifetime care for every dog in our program: once rescued, these dogs never need to be rescued again.
• There are currently 74 SDF-trained Search Teams located in California, Florida, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah.

DEPLOYMENTS:
Since the tragedy of 9/11, SDF search teams have been called upon by state agencies across the country to serve as the first responders to numerous disasters, including hurricanes, earthquakes, mud slides, train derailments and building collapses. Whether responding to a major national disaster, or one closer to home, SDF teams stand ready to serve.

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Tsunami & Earthquakes in Japan Gas Explosion in San Bruno, CA Gas Explosion in Sacramento, CA Missing Hiker in Carmel Valley, CA Oklahoma Tornadoes Haiti Earthquake Truck Crash in Monterey Park, CA Missing Teens in Tustin, CA Car Accident in Tehachapi, CA Truck Crash in La Cañada-Flintridge, CA Missing Girl in Albany, NY Train Wreck in Chatsworth, CA Structural Collapse in Jacksonville, FL Tornado in Lake County, FL Daly City Wall Collapse Mill Valley Mudslide Albany House Explosion

New York Floods Florida Building Collapse Hurricane Rita Hurricane Katrina Laguna Beach Landslides La Conchita Mudslide Los Angeles Train Derailment Bluff Collapse in San Diego Hurricanes Ravage South Florida California Mudslides Wreak Havoc in the Wake of Fires Earthquake Rocks California’s Central Coast City of Commerce Train Derailment Sacramento Building Collapse World Trade Center Attack Oklahoma City Bombing

Dirty Limerick Beads

You know how it's so much easier to say "That would be a great name for a band!" and then plan on some day getting that band together, rather than sitting around with your band and trying to come up with a name? It's a moment of inspiration. Or at my age it is more often "Wow, that would be an excellent title for a book!" and then plan to write that book some day. I'll never write the book. And i'm pretty sure i'll never have a book sitting there on the desk all written and i'm trying to come up for a title for it. I often have a set of beads already made that i will need to come up for a name for in order to list them on etsy.

But sometimes we actually act on those backwards eureka moments. Yesterday i had this thought: "Dirty Limerick would be an excellent name for a set of beads." So i made some beads to go with the name. I don't think i'm quite finished with this pattern and these colors yet, so it may end up being a large set.

I'm fond of limericks and wrote a dirty limerick especially to go with the beads. It goes something like this:

A girl named Elizabeth Schmidty
Had a big hairy mole on her titty.
Her foot was a stump
And her back had a hump.
She said "Thank god my left elbow is pretty!"

And no one wants these beads now! lol

Retro Flower Beads

I'm still a little shocked that these came out of my workshop the other day. They are so unlike the beads that i usually make. Bold and contrasty. Hmmm. [They are in the etsy shop now.]

One cool thing about little bits of color--beads, fabric, or what have you--it is really nice to be able to move them around and try out different colors next to each other. I had this set sitting on my kitchen counter and every time i passed by it i had to move them around and see what color combos i liked best. I had thought maybe i would make another set using just the three best colors, but the "best three colors" changed for me every time i looked for them!

Petal Bones

It must be spring. I'm doing flowers on all of my beads. :-)

Some petal bone beads are in my etsy shop. I like the soft blue flowers on the delft bone. And the retro color combo on the ink blue bone is really nice.

I Heart My Dog

Don't we all!?

I have quit selling my dog collar jewelry, but am launching into dog related human jewelry. At this point i am just sticking my merchandise toe into the water with the production of some very affordable and fun little charms:

My handmade glass hearts and dog bones have been fashioned into cute little charms which can be used on a charm bracelet, slip a small assortment of them onto a neck chain or ribbon, dangled one from your phone or zipper, and my favorite use: purse personalizers! I like to clip my special beads to my handbag--they go everywhere with me, and are always visible, and i get a certain number of comments (particularly on my sock monkey bead). Contact me through my etsy shop, The Bead You Need, to arrange for a custom order with your special color requests, etc.

Fans of my GemBonz and PuppyLuv charms will be glad to hear that these special birthstone dog bone and heart charms will soon be available as pendants on lovely sterling silver findings and sterling silver chains.